At its simplest, The Secret History of Star Wars is a
book exploring the writing and creation of the Star Wars saga. Culled from over
400 sources and filled with quotes from people such as George
Lucas, Gary Kurtz and Mark Hamill, it traces all the way back to 1973
to examine how the first 14-page treatment that began the series came
to be and was slowly built, draft by draft, year by year
and movie by movie. Covering a period of over four decades,
you will discover how George Lucas got his ideas for the original
film, how Darth Vader was made into Luke Skywalker's father in 1978 and
forever altered the arc of the story, what happened to the infamous third
trilogy in the series and how the prequel stories came to
be. The book also reveals the style and method of Lucas
himself and how his personal life affected and shaped the story, for better and
worse. This is a book which challenges many legends surrounding the series
and places the films in a new light.

Why did you write
this?

The details and perspective offered in
The Secret History of Star Wars
need to be better known, basically. There is
a glaring void in both the film community and
the Star Wars fan community that is in need of
being filled. Interest in the history of the Star Wars
series, the most popular film and film series ever made, is
tremendous, but, unfortunately, there is a ton of misinformation, confusion
and inaccuracy surrounding it. I called the book the cliched "The
Secret History of" because, at its simplest, this perspective of the series has
never been told. Some of these items have been
known for a few years in small circles of "Star Wars scholars," I
guess you could say, but the overarching history of the series has
never been collected and explained in a cohesive synthesis the way this
book has done.

Is this book authorized
by Lucasfilm?

No, not in the least. In fact, a primary tenet
is its defiance of the "traditional" Lucasfilm version of history,
which has skewered some key facts over the years. This is a totally
independent work of research.

Wasn't this available for free before?
And didn't I hear about this a long time
ago?

The
Secret History of Star Wars has a long and complicated history. In fact, when I
first began writing it, I did not intend for
it to be book-length, I was merely interested in doing
a lengthy essay on the history of the Star Wars
storytelling/screenwriting process, perhaps to be hosted online as The Starkiller script site had
done with some similar essays; as my page count reached the triple
digits, I realised I had a book in me. However, when I
was finished in early 2007, due to various issues I could not convince a
publisher to go with the book. In the end, I figured I had originally
written it out of sheer passion with the intention that it be
made available for free on the internet as an educational piece,
and so that's exactly what I
did.

The first version of the book was available online in
March 2007, but I kept it quiet for the reason that I
was still in the process of editing it; it was, in
many ways, a sort of beta
release.After getting
some feedback, doing additional research--helped tremendously by the
publishing of Lucasfilm's The Making of Star Wars--a second version
was published online just before christmas of that year (but before
this I had been doing revisions to the uploaded piece regularly
as well). With the backbone of the book finalised a third edition
came out in May of 2008, the main feature being that I had finally
taken the book and gone through a length editing process. I have
never advertised the book, but Secret History spread quite
quickly through word of mouth, and developed a bit of a reputation
online. I think people were generally amazed not just that something
like this was published but that it was being given away for free.
The third online edition in May of 2008 in particular made big waves
on the internet, appearing in places like Slashdot and even a blog
for the L.A. Times if I remember correctly. Eventually a publisher
got in touch with me and convinced me to get
a (heavily revised) version of the book in print.
The published version has been available since late November, 2008,
from Legacy Books Press (who, completely coincidentally, are based out
Kingston, Ontario, just a couple hours drive from where I am). The self-published
e-book has since been retired; it was downloaded close to 100, 000 times
and I hope all who read it enjoyed it in the year
and a half it was available. While I kind of miss the ideal of handing
the book out for free, I also think, in the ideal to reach as
many people as possible, that an actual printed version will reach a
much wider audience and have a much bigger impact (and its
much more enjoyable to read as
hard-copy).

So, who are you anyway?

A Star
Wars fan who happens to hold film history of high importance, I suppose. I
don't work as a professional writer by trade; my real job is as
a cameraman in the film and television industry, although now I am University
student.